Eric Holder’s time is up at the Justice Department.

It’s not that he’s done a bad job, or that he’s a bad lawyer, or that he’s corrupt – that he’s committed an actual crime.

It is, however, time for him to go in the face of a growing controversy involving the procuring of phone record from reporters.

http://thehill.com/homenews/news/302471-holder-on-the-ropes

President Obama’s got a tough call to make. He and the attorney general are good friends. Holder is a historic AG, the first African-American to hold that job. Holder, though, is facing a nearly impossible task of extricating himself from the controversy while clinging to his job. It will dog him for as long as he stands at his post.

When that happens, all else gets pushed into the background.

Holder’s Justice Department in May 2012 got hold of phone records of Associated Press reporters and editors after the news agency reported on the foiling of a botched terror attack. It was thought that the attack was meant to commemorate the first anniversary of the killing of Osama bin Laden by a Navy SEAL team in Pakistan. The Justice Department seems to think some classified information was used to report on the story, so it seized the phone records to look for evidence of a national security breach.

It’s understandable that DOJ would be concerned. But it has this little problem called the First Amendment to the Constitution which says quite clearly that the government cannot interfere with a free press.

AP news executives have been quite alarmed at what they call an “unprecedented” search for phone logs.

This has happened on Eric Holder’s watch at the Justice Department.

The media are outraged, as are politicians of both parties. They want answers. So far, the AG hasn’t given them.

It’s time for him to leave. It’s also time for the president to get involved actively in assembling a new leadership team at the Justice Department.

Rats.

I was so hoping U.S. Rep. Michelle Bachmann would run for another term in the House of Representatives.

The Minnesota Republican – who’s “distinguished” herself in so many ways – now says she’s won’t seek another term in the House.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2013/05/29/rep_bachmann_says_she_wont_run_for_re-election_118600.html

What will I do for political entertainment?

Bachmann ran for president in 2012, trying to capture the tea party wing’s vote in her party’s primary campaign. It didn’t work out too well for her. She kept saying goofy things and getting caught up in clumsy messes involving her husband’s so-called efforts to talk people out of being gay. She accused congressional Democrats of being un-American and closet communists. She beat the “death panel” drum while trying to defeat President Obama’s Affordable Care Act.

I can’t think of some of the other things she said. Suffice to say she spoke ungracefully at times.

Bachmann’s announcement has Republicans breathing a bit more easily. She won re-election to her House seat narrowly in 2012 and was considered quite beatable by Democrats in 2014. Now that she’s taken herself out of the game, the GOP now thinks it can hold her seat next year.

Of course, Bachmann says her political standing among Republicans had nothing to do with her decision to step aside. You’d expect her to say that. I’m not so sure.

Whatever. I wish she’d reconsider. We need you in the game, Rep. Bachmann. Politics can get dreary at times. We need you to liven it up.

We had a fitful few hours last night.

A storm blew through Amarillo just before midnight and when it got here, the sirens went off all over the city.

The tornado sirens blasted seemingly forever. The TV weather forecasters all were on the air telling us the same thing: Get under cover; head below ground if you can; stay inside; stay away from windows.

The storm moved rapidly through the city and by a little after midnight, a tornado that reportedly touched the ground somewhere along Interstate 40 had dissipated.

I couldn’t stop thinking of our neighbors in Moore, Okla., who just now are beginning to start digging their way out of the debris left by a killer twister that ripped through their city. Twenty-four people – including several children – died as a result of that storm. Our nation’s heart breaks for the loss and our prayers keep going to those who survived and who must reassemble their community.

I heard this morning from a friend who lives in Farwell, who told me his daughter was without power for six hours last night. There certainly are other stories like that. Us? We lucked out. The lights never blinked. Not one time. We were in touch with the world during the entire event.

It’s the helplessness that gets to me. The weather guys kept telling us to take cover. Where? We don’t have a basement, let alone a storm cellar. We just sat there, listening to the warnings coming out of the TV screen – and to the sirens wailing outside.

Well, we got through that one just fine. It does give me pause to count my blessings, which I usually do on most days as it is for a number of reasons that have nothing to do with the weather.

But today, I’ll add the weather to my lengthy list of blessings and pray we can continue to stay out of Mother Nature’s path of destruction.

A story caught my eye today about football great Jim Brown’s return to professional football.

It says the Cleveland Browns have brought Brown back to work for the team in an undisclosed capacity. Good news, yes? Absolutely. Anytime you land someone of Jim Brown’s caliber, you’ve scored a big-time coup.

However …

These aren’t the same Browns for which Brown played for nine seasons before retiring at the peak of his career in 1965. The old Browns franchise packed up and moved to, um, Baltimore. That was in 1996. The Browns wanted a new stadium to replace the Dog Pound, aka Municipal Stadium, which the team filled to capacity with some 90,000 fans on Sunday home games. The old Browns boasted one of the most loyal fan bases in the league, which didn’t seem to matter all that much to the team’s ownership.

http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/jim-brown-lands-job-with-cleveland-browns-052813

Cleveland was without an NFL team for three seasons after that dastardly betrayal by Browns-Ravens owner Art Modell. Then the “Browns” returned in 1999 under new ownership. They built a brand new team from scratch.

The old Browns? Well, they’ve done well since being reincarnated as the Ravens. They’ve won a couple of Super Bowls.

As for Jim Brown, the great running back, he’s had a nice life, too, since football. He’s acted in some films and become a spokesman for civil rights causes. The news link attached to this blog said Brown had been estranged from the Browns – the new Browns, that is – since he was let go some years back. The team has a new owner and apparently Brown has buried the hatchet with the team.

I’m glad he’s back in the NFL, even if his so-called “return” to the “Browns” requires a bit of an explanation.

Texas legislators – perhaps some of them at least – may have thought they were going home today.

Wrong. Gov. Rick Perry has whistled them back in for a special session to deal with – get ready – redistricting. You’ll recall the last time the Legislature met in special session on that matter. It was back in 2003 and it turned into a circus, with Democrats fleeing the state to prevent the Legislature from doing any business.

http://www.mystatesman.com/news/news/opinion/session-adjourned-but-legislators-arent-packing-ba/nX4bX/?icmp=statesman_internallink_textlink_apr2013_statesmanstubtomystatesman_launch

But the 83rd Texas Legislature did manage to do some things that few of us thought was possible. As the editorial from the Austin American-Statesman linked to this post notes, legislators demonstrated that bipartisanship doesn’t consign lawmakers to spend eternity in “the depths of hell.”

They passed a lot of good legislation with Democrats and Republicans working together to make it happen. Listen up, members of Congress. It can be done. See?

Perry’s special session call doesn’t figure to be as contentious as that earlier session on redistricting. Then again, one never knows when the issue turns to redrawing congressional and legislative districts. As the American-Statesman noted, “there can be no more partisan” endeavor facing lawmakers.

The late state Sen. Teel Bivins of Amarillo was fond of saying that redistricting was a time for “Republicans to eat their young.” He also could have thrown Democrats into that stew.

Bon appetit.

Well, at least the Texas Legislature saved itself from having to confront an expected veto from Gov. Rick Perry …

The object of the veto would have been a statewide ban on texting while driving. The Legislature didn’t even put the measure to a vote of the Senate, where the bill died a quiet death. It did get through the House of Representatives, with the Panhandle’s Republican House delegation voting in favor of the bill. Good for them.

Perry’s antagonism rests with what he calls government “intrusion.” It’s a popular phrase among conservatives, although one could argue – and I have done so – that the right wing is rather selective on which laws intrude too deeply into people’s personal lives. He vetoed a similar bill in 2011.

Statewide texting bans aren’t new. Other states have enacted them and have been able to enforce them. Texas, though, seems unwilling to go that far – which of course is the state’s prerogative.

But as it has been noted, cities have the option of passing such laws. Amarillo has done so. The absence of a statewide ban does not override the city’s ordinance banning the activity.

However, it’s a huge state outside the city limits and motorists will continue to have license to perform foolish acts behind the wheel of their motor vehicles. Remember that such foolishness doesn’t just put their lives in danger, it also threatens the rest of us on the road.

Nice going, lawmakers.

I learned about a term today I didn’t know existed.

It’s called The Oklahoma Standard. The Daily Oklahoman editorialized today about what Memorial Day means to residents of the Sooner State. It’s a bit different than it is perhaps for the rest of the nation.

http://newsok.com/in-time-oklahomas-dark-skies-will-give-way-to-light/article/3834008

The editorial referenced Memorial Day holidays in 1995, 1999 and now in 2013. In 1995, Memorial Day fell just after the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City was blown apart in an act of domestic terror; the perpetrator was captured, tried and executed. In 1999, the holiday arrived on the heels of a terrible tornado that ripped through Moore and Midwest City. This year, the holiday comes in the wake of yet another tornado that destroyed much of Moore.

The Oklahoma Standard, according to the Oklahoman, is the giving spirit of Oklahomans who rush to aid their neighbors in times of trouble. Noting the cleanup that’s just beginning in the aftermath of the latest tragic tornado, the Oklahoman said: “Thousands of Oklahomans have volunteered their time, labor and resources to help their neighbors, providing everything from shelter to water to clothes to cash to a shoulder to cry on. This outpouring was not unexpected. The Oklahoma Standard saw to that.”

The Oklahoma Standard. May it live in the hearts of all Americans.

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, doesn’t trust those of his own political party, which means he’s really and truly distrustful of those in the other party.

I’m still scratching my head over what he said on the Senate floor the other day.

http://tv.msnbc.com/2013/05/23/sen-ted-cruz-i-dont-trust-republicans/

If he doesn’t trust either Republicans and Democrats, does he trust anyone? Is there an ounce of trust and good will in this man’s body? Or is he out to wreck the government, tear it down, rebuild it into something else – perhaps in his own image?

This guy is getting weirder by the day … and that’s really saying something because he’s been pretty weird ever since he took office all those many months ago.

Yeah, he’s been in the Senate all of five months and he’s managed to step on just about every set of toes there is. To what end is not yet clear. I know he’s not the first politician to take a public office perhaps with his eyes on a larger prize down the road. This individual’s brass, though, is breathtaking.

He’s even managed to antagonize the senior statesmen within his own party, such as Sen. John McCain, the 2008 GOP presidential nominee and Vietnam War prisoner.

Former Sen. Bob Dole, one of his party’s elders, said the other day the Senate is “badly bent.” Dole would be on the outs with the likes of Cruz, a tea party golden boy. The man, though, knew how to legislate and managed to forge constructive working relationships with senators from the other party, such as his good friend and fellow World War II veteran the late Sen. George McGovern.

I’m trying to imagine Ted Cruz forming that kind of bond with someone on the other side. That image just refuses to take shape in my mind’s eye.

I don’t dwell too much on these kinds of things, but I’m thinking today of a young man I knew briefly many years ago.

His name was Jose DeLaTorre. We served in the same U.S. Army aviation battalion at Marble Mountain, a heavily fortified outpost just south of Da Nang in what used to be called South Vietnam. He served in a different company than I did; he worked on a UH-1 Huey helicopter crew while I was assigned to a fixed-wing outfit, the 245th Aviation Company, which flew OV-1 Mohawk reconnaissance aircraft.

One day in June 1969, Jose came bursting into our work area full of enthusiasm. He was going home in just a few days. I recall he’d extended his tour in ‘Nam several times. I think he had served something like 32 months in-country. I recall he usually was full of it – even on his quiet days. But on this day, Jose was pretty much out of control with excitement.

Later that day, his Huey company scrambled on a troop-lift mission. DeLaTorre did what he usually did when his company got the call to lift off: He strapped himself into an M-60 machine gun and flew as a door gunner on the mission.

It was supposed to be a “routine” drop at a landing zone. It wasn’t. The LZ was “hot,” meaning the ships were greeted by heavy enemy fire when they arrived.

You know how this tale turns out.

DeLaTorre was killed in action that day.

I didn’t know him well. Indeed, it took me 21 years – when I visited the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in D.C. in 1990 with my wife and sons – to learn he hailed from Fullerton, Calif. I saw his name carved into The Wall. I paid my respects and, yes, choked back the lump in my throat.

Today I’m thinking of that effervescent young man and the 58,000-plus other names on that monument, as well all those who have fallen in battle since the beginning of this great republic.

May they all rest in peace.

Thank you for your sacrifice.

I am not a musician.

Heck, I can barely play the radio. But I saw this link recently and it just blows me away.

Randy Bachman, the guitarist and a founding member of Bachman Turner Overdrive, talks of visiting the Abbey Road studio in London and learns the secret to what he calls the most famous chord in rock-music history.

It’s the chord that begins “A Hard Day’s Night.” Diehard Beatles fans – such as yours truly – know what I’m talking about.

http://www.openculture.com/2011/12/guitarist_randy_bachman_demystifies_the_opening_chord_of_a_hard_days_night.html

The coolest part of this brief audio link, though, is the sound of Bachman’s voice when he puts all the pieces together – courtesy of Giles Martin, the son of legendary Beatles music producer Sir George Martin – and then strums the chord.

It knocks me out to hear a musician get so tickled as he learns the secret to a bit of rock-and-roll history. When Bachman talks about all the various notes that John, Paul and George played to put that magical sound together, he might as well be speaking Martian to me.

But when he gets downright giddy at the sound that comes from all of it, well, he is speaking language any of us can understand.